This Mind of Mine

The events of this segment take place between Adar 12 and Matun 5 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

So it came to be that five heroes met on the road on their way south to the city of Hawkmere. These heroes came together in Rivenhelm, all heading in the same direction for a number of different reasons. Among these was Malebranche, a githyanki wanderer who was stranded in Eyane due a series of unfortunate events.

The events of this segment take place between Vasarius 18 and Tebesh 15 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

Olwë Helyanwë made his way to Gernaris from the city of [[Ehtelé. His mission was to meet with a gnome named Domori Wormtooth and receive a scroll important to the Headmaster of Saverius Academy, an elven school of magic that Olwë studied at and served. Once Olwë arrived in Grayport, he used funds for the mission on procuring a guide and a possible guard to aid him in the current mission and perhaps future ones. Seeing that adventurers were of little work due to the local military’s decision to defend caravans heading north, Olwë had his choice of any of the would-be heroes.

He first met with Finrod Calaelan, an elven guide and woodsman who wore the hide of a behir and carried a mighty bow. He told Olwë that his knowledge of the wilds and of the cities of Gernaris was extensive and that no other pathfinder would ever be needed by the eladrin. Olwë also found a Parnan named Samael Corson, a priest of Iveriu who promised to keep the two at the peak of health. So, the group was formed and they went on about their mission.

The group waited patiently at the Sandy Beggar for the symbol in Wormtooth’s shop across the street. As the gnome merchant closed up his shop and cleaned up the store front, a group of suspicious guards advanced on him. Amongst their rank was an assassin, his black cloak drawn tight to conceal his twisted blade ready to strike. Olwë saw the danger first and pushed open the window and attempted to steal the patrol’s attention with a display of his fey magic. In a matter of seconds, what the group hoped could pass as an easy job was thrown hard into a skirmish on the streets of Grayport. Defending Domori Wormtooth was their primary goal.

The engagement was heated and two wanderers joined in the fray, aiding the guards because of the pure awkwardness of the combat. The two wanderers were not without a little awkwardness themselves. Rhock Blazehatchet, of the Blazehatchet Clan of Scoria, and his loyal pet Raigor, a tamed minotaur, quickly learned that the guards were not truly guards at all and they were forced to aid the adventuring group to safety. Additionally, another mysterious bandit attacked from the rooftops, a woman who seemed to want the would-be assassin dead. Real guards were alerted to the fight and so it came that the group had to flee Grayport. They had lost the trails of the hiding gnome and the bandit, who had at one point been bleeding out on the cobblestone and the next mysteriously vanished!

The adventurers, along with the bandit woman named Reality pushed their way out of Grayport and out onto the road. As night closed, a broken tower appeared on the horizon with firelight beaming from its ruined walls. The adventures stalked up upon the group of hobgoblin bandits lead by a whip-wielding drow. The situation immediately came to blows with the adventurers triumphing over the highwaymen. Amongst their gathered loot was a bound and gagged gnome that turned out to be none other than Domori.

Finrod said that their path north to the nearest town of Oakfall would lead them through the foothills of Bladewind Mountains. He warned that they would be walking directly over the area that hosted the Battle of Wyrmrock. To his understanding, the battlefield was a haunted place that shadow seeped in the soil and the undead would rise up on travelers at random. His foresight into the region lead to the groups’ survival against the foul horrors fueled by the Shadowfell. They safely arrived in Oakfall at the light of the next day.

Rhock and Raigor headed off to the first tavern they found in the town, called The Spirit Essence of the Drowned. The name seemed too long for the pair, but the dwarf desperately needed a drink and it appeared to be the only tap room in small town. Sadly, the minotaur’s presence was not welcome and after a short non-violent conflict with a Border Warden, the minotaur was led off to the stockade. It was learned that Raigor was indeed a monstrous creature as the border warden placed his shackles upon him. Luckily, the warden had an open mind and understood the cultural differences of the dwarves of Gernaris and those from the far northern region of Scoria.

After a rainy night in the stocks, Raigor headed on to return to his group with his loyal “master” Rhock, who had waited by his side throughout the night. As they approached the Spirit, the duo saw none other than the bandit from their last night in Grayport traveling about with a handful of unsavory characters. In walked this band of villains on their unsuspecting comrades. Raigor went to warn the border warden since he was no longer allowed in the establishment while Rhock went in to ready his friends to arms.

The bandit was none other than Ratshark, the very same bandit from Grayport. Reality had something of a rivalry with this bandit and made no attempt to hold her blade as the bandit entered in. A fight ensued, the border warden aided the group due to known warrants on Ratshark’s head. It ended with property damage and Ratshark’s demise. The group, at the suggestion of the border warden, followed Finrod north towards Brandonford.

The events of this segment take place between Tebesh 16 and Tebesh 19 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

Once the group arrived at the gates of Brandonford, their feet were tired and their eyes were filled with Mekema’s dust. They marched with hope for a good meal and a strong drink to the Antler and Thistle tavern. And for a time, the reveled in the merriment of the locals and told a short tale or two, thinking that exerting oneself in a jocund fashion would be no harm because a warm bed was what came next in their path. That is, until a band of hobgoblins with hands painted red led by two goblins with sickeningly black blades stormed through the doors followed by the screams of dying Brandonfordians.

The heroes waded through the fiends and out into the streets. As they made their way to one of Brandonford’s main thoroughfares, a ball of liquid fire splattered onto the cobblestone before them. Walking about in the street was a savage ogre, his hand gripping a cask dripping with the same liquid fire. Hobgoblins rushed into the street as well and the buildings were alive with the destructive flames from the ogre’s casks. The battle began, roaring in the flames until the mighty ogre was brought down and the hobgoblins were forced to flee the town. The heroes did what they could to help the wounded and save what property they could.

As they did what good they could for the people of Brandonford, they learned that during the raid citizens had been taken prisoner by the hobgoblins. The acting captain of the City Watch came to the heroes and humbly asked them to seek out the lair of the hobgoblin warchief known as Sinruth and rescue the innocent folk from his clutches. The list of those taken consisted of the captain of the City Watch, the captain’s son, an acolyte of the god Tak, an herbalist, the custodian of one of the city’s museums, an alchemist who many in town believe to be a witch, and a cook at a local tavern.

The acting captain informed the heroes that the council of Brandonford wished them to take audience with them and the group agreed to this. The council, specifically Councilmember Eoffram Troyas, urged the heroes to make haste after the goblins. They also suggested that they glean information on the whereabouts of the goblin’s encampment from a captured hobgoblin named Morrik. Their conversation with the captive was short and they learned that the band of hobgoblins, known as Sinruth’s Hand, laired in the ruins of Brandon Keep, north of the Brandon River. They left with haste towards the ruins.

The ruins of the Brandonford Keep haunted the horizon and not light nor goblin-sign awaited them. The complex revealed a passageway that lead deep into the keep’s underbelly, so the heroes followed Olwë’s light down the dark stairway. They were greeted by a band of hobgoblins lead by a brightly red-skinned goblin. A brute for its kind, the goblin barked off orders to the hobgoblins as if they were children. Reality knows the tongue of goblinkind, and so she knew that this lieutenant was named “Irontusk”. They charged from the shadows of the entryway into the goblins and left not one with breath.

More hobgoblins abound and the heroes fought their way into every one of their watch posts in the dank dungeon. The first captive they found was Sertanian the curator of the Great Hall of Valor Museum. He took up armor and arms and made the heroes aware of the relics that were taken by the hobgoblins during their raid.

The group eventually delved deep into the dungeon of the fallen keep. Within the bowels of this place, they found a strange painting of another keep. It was identical to what Olwë presumed the former glory of Brandonford Keep would have looked like, except that this keep was built within a swampy region. Olwë decided that this painting was in fact a portal to another keep, or perhaps some form of arcane communication to a distant land. Olwë would investigate the painting further later, if he had the chance.

Deeper still the group went, seeking out the captive citizens of Brandonford. The group tumbled into the lair of a green dragon named Chuak’reskafar. The green dragon’s defense of his lair was stronger than the party could deal with. Rhock Blazehatchet and Samael Corson were charged with protecting the captives and returning them to Brandonford. The others’ fate was far more dire. They stayed and fought with the vile green for a time, buying the rescuers time to spare the captives from their same fate. Raigor fell in moments, his strength not enough to match Chuak’reskafar’s draconic might. Reality was crushed under the weight of the dragon. Finrod was the last to fall, his arrows flew until none of the others drew breath. The fate of Olwë is yet unknown.

The dwarf and the priest ran from Brandonford, the shadow of the dragon rising up from the ruins of the keep. As chance would have it, a band of militia men were camped outside Brandonford Keep, waiting to invade and return the captives to safety. They instead made a pathetic opposition for the dragon, who fell like a star into their ranks and left not a man standing. This gave Rhock and Samael time to flee the scene without being detected by the dragon. They returned to Brandonford with less than a hero’s welcome. The news of the dragon fell on horrified ears and the people began packing up their things. Preparations to evacuate Brandonford were underway. Sinruth’s Hand’s shadow, and that of their dragon ally, had fallen over Brandonford.

The events of this segment take place between Tebesh 19 and Tebesh 22 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

As fate would have it, shortly after the victories of Sinruth’s Hand over the heroes of Brandonford, a group of heroes would assemble just north in the small village of Arum. These heroes were the valiant marshal Asuka Whiteplume, the Parnaak soldier Marcus Estriton, and the dwarven mystic from the Northron Forest Garn Oakhand. The town had recently been attacked by Sinruth’s advance scouts, who had holed up in an old mausoleum. They had yet to attract the attention of the constable in the region, but the group listened to the sad tale of the hobgoblin’s victims in the ruins of the village and decided they would quest after these villains. One villager, Quinn Stasi, asked that the heroes find his two sons, Daras Stasi and Byron Stasi.

Meanwhile, Wenviiron of the Thieves’ Guild had received orders from her superiors to hunt down an elf named Helvec Tovesh’naernon and see that his debt owed the guild was recovered. If he was to not pay the guild in gold then he was to pay in blood. Having decent foresight and knowing well that Helvec was a practicing user of the Old Magics and necromancer, Wenviiron called upon a friend of hers in The Magier, one Inari Rainbrand, to aid her in her mission. Inari accepted the mission, knowing that the defeat of a necromancer would bring her some recognition in her order. The two camped outside the mausoleum and waited a couple of days before witnessing the heroes from the village approaching.

The two groups quickly came to an agreement to work together in defeating the hobgoblins and slaying Helvec with conditions in place. Wenviiron was to take the chest that Helvec had been seen with and return it to her guild. Garn was to take Helvec’s left incisor for his enclave as proof of the exiled druid’s demise. They entered the mausoleum and were met with a bit of a puzzle. Cunning told them to move small icons over the caskets of the former lords of Arum to cause the obelisk in the center of the chamber to shift and unveil the access way to the bowels of the tomb. During this process, a shade of some long dead lord came about and taunted the heroes, but its riddle in the end was what aided them most in solving the mystery of the sliding obelisk.

The first defense in the old catacombs beneath the mausoleum was a pair of hobgoblin soldier proudly displaying the insignia of the Red Hand. They waited in cover with arrow fire, waiting to spring an elaborate trap wherein a lantern would fall into a stone casket full of fish oil while a hero tried to spring over it. The two were downed and the trap phased not a one. A few more of these hobgoblins were dispatched before the group came to a door with a demon face glowing bright green on its surface. They found that its illumination was from a vile-looking magic circle upon the ground within the room that glowed with a corruption of earthly light. In this circle sat Quinn’s boys, Daras and Byron, crying and slightly battered. The shadow spirit watched.

The heroes entered and the boys warned them that the “mean elf” said that if they left the circle, the roof would fall on their heads. As the heroes approached, two seemingly lifeless statues in the room suddenly sprang to life and engaged them in melee. This was a short clash, because the heroes were much stronger than simple animated earth. They rescued the boys and the roof fell in, wounding Garn wickedly upon the group’s escape. Marcus and Asuka quickly calmed the children and told them to stay put. They assured the children that Helvec would pay for their abuse and abduction. The shadow spirit watched.

“Your blood will aid in my work, interlopers!” Helvec screeched as they entered his chamber. At his gesture, four skeletal warriors engaged them. The fight was quick, ending with Helvec being pressed by Wenviiron and Marcus into a series of stabs and slashes that bleed him out and laid him low. The heroes took what they came for and prepared to leave. The shadow spirit came before them. He congratulated them and asked if they would seal his tomb as it should be. They spent a short while in the mausoleum, righting the wrongs of Helvec’s marks and desecration. Then they returned to Arum, returned the Stasi boys to Quinn, and prepared to move on.

Marcus and Asuka said they had some business in Arum and then just north to find the border warden to report this activity. Wenviiron and Inari told the two soldiers that they would continue to Great Rock to the southwest and that they would fight alongside the two mercenaries any day. Garn said he would return to his forest to confirm Helvec’s demise. And so they went…

The events of this segment take place between Shebest 8 and Shebest 12 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

Malebranche sat in the tower of Valthrun the Prescient, discussing the goings on of the region of Windhaven some sixdays after Malebranche’s narrow escape from the Keep on the Shadowfell. Valthrun learned from the Regulars that a group of orcs known as the Night Fists was said to have made contact with a hobgoblin proudly displaying a blood red hand on its shield. This fact troubled Valthrun, but the Night Fists laired in an old Vetalis ruin high in the stone cliffs of the Bladewind Mountains.
As luck would have it, two pairs of adventurers found their way into Windhaven. One was on their way north from port in Hawkmere. They were Fech, a bard who could change his face to the characters he portrayed in his stories, and Erevan, an eladrin ranger originally from Scoria who found a decent amount of pay as a guide for wanderers such as Fech. The other pair came with a large band of refugees from Brandonford. They were the defeated heroes Rhock Blazehatchet and Samael Corson. Malebranche united these heroes on a quest to go to the Night Fists’ lair and kill them all, learn of the emissary with the red hand-emblem shield.
The journey to the old Vetalis ruins was short and the heroes saw the movements of the orcs in the lights coming from the caves and entrances of the place. They entered in with blades ready and came into a throng of orcs, led by a berserker with the black fist emblazoned on his jerkin. A hobgoblin commander fought alongside the orcs, a red hand panted upon his cloak. The fight was swift as the presence of the hobgoblin brought Rhock to a divine rage.
It came to be that the orcs and hobgoblin planned to conquer a small clan of kobolds that lived within and have them join the cause of Sinruth’s Red Hand. They also believed that the dragon known as “Nightscale” would aid them in their cause. The heroes befriended the kobolds and were granted a meeting with the dragon. Through peaceful negotiations, the heroes received the Jade Chalice which lay in the dragon’s hoard and were sent out to restore the dragon’s honor by defeating Sinruth and returning his head within a month’s time.

The events of this segment take place between Shebest 9 and Shebest 13 in the year 1582 AR (Timeline).

Wenviiron and Inari headed northeast towards the city of Great Rock, so named for the large standing stone at the center of the city, said to be a relic of a time long since forgotten, when the eladrin race ruled over all E’yané as it and the Feywild were one. They sought out a bit of rest and decided they may seek out some work in town before they headed back to Old Hisrech. Adventure, it seemed, had been waiting just behind the south wall of the city…
Meanwhile, the eladrin wizard Valas Khila, an emissary of the Saverius Academy, arrived in the south portion of Great Rock with his warforged guardian, Time. Valas came all the way to Gernaris in hopes of finding the whereabouts of Olwë Helyanwë, who was instructed to return with a very important scroll, but had since fallen out of contact. Time, his loyal guardian, was an ancient relic of Altimera, an elven society that ruled most of the eastern continents and aided in the rise of mankind to power. Their search for the lost acolyte would be beset with adventure…
Klael, a wandering mercenary of mysterious decent, came into Great Rock in hopes of finding a few spare coin for a few simple kills. As luck would have it, he turned onto the southernmost road of the city just as Inari, Wenviiron, Valas, and Time came to the same place. And with a violent boom and thunderous crash, the south wall came down and a swarm of goblins rushed into the city.
Fate joined them together and they worked decisively well as a team, meting out death to the raiders. Inari and Wenviiron saw a number enter into a specific shop and they assumed they were seeking something specifically in that place. So, they followed the would-be thieves and dished out a healthy portion of justice. The goblins were quickly defeated.
The shopkeeper rewarded them with a goblin horn totem, which Wenviiron took and Inari presumed was the reason for all this chaos. The five heroes met up in the Green Tankard Tavern to discuss possibly working together in the future.
The heroes learned the history of the horn totem: it was found by Curuvar the Brazen in a barrow south of Great Rock. After dialogues with Curuvar and Iruith Staciarunya, the Lady Mayor, the group set off south in search of the barrow known to house the remains of Renka, the “Ogre King”.
After entering into the barrow and felling the goblins defending its bowels, the group came face to face with the leader of the goblins, Sancossug.